🔗 Share this article Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593. “Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.” Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world. The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step each cycle. “Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.” Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention. Round and Up Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the components do not fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.